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Saturday, 29 November 2008

I have recently taken part in 2 jigsaw jams as those of you who have followed my blog recently will know. I have sat today and completed my 'Time' themed one and this is the result.I random painted the canvas with acrylic paints. I made the clock face by using a downloaded image scaled to the size I wanted, then added my 'Queen of the Last Minute' stamp in the centre (again scaled down). After colouring with gel pens and distressing the main part of the face I then triple embossed it. The six jiggy bits were done by (from the top) Wendy K, Sheila C, Cindy, Me, Sherry and Jinny. They are fabulous pieces and the small picture on here doesn't do them justice. My other jammers put so much effort and creativity into their jiggy bits, I was completely overwhelmed when they all started to arrive.Finally I added the metal letters before assembling it all onto the canvas.I am really happy with this piece. The builders have finished in the new workroom and I am expecting to be settled in there next week..... complete with new clock!

Wednesday, 26 November 2008

What a great surprise today... A parcel arrived from Tennessee, USA and when I opened it here she was! Isn't she fabulous?!

This amazing work is called 'Granny and Gingerbread Boy' ..'Granny' is about 4" tall and the little gingerbread boy is clasped anxiously against Granny's ample bosom!

It was sculpted by one of the most talented people I have 'met' in Blogland. Her name is Renee Buchanan.

I think Renee's work is amazing. She works with polymer clay and fashions the most awesome figures. Granny here has a look of terror on her face as if somone is about to run off with her little gingerbread boy - (or even worse, eat him!)!

You can view Renees work at http://ragtreepeople.blogspot.com/. Each piece she makes is an original, one of a kind. Her work is also for sale- so if you're looking for something a bit different for Christmas go visit her blog and follow her link to her shopping site!

Monday, 24 November 2008

Margaret is hosting a Christmas Bauble Decoration swap. All the baubles are the same size and shape and we could embellish in any way. Time has been at a premium for me this past week but I found a few hours yesterday to craft.

My new work room is almost completed, so I really need to be sorting out the stash all crafters accumulate rather than actually creating....but I am so ill disciplined!

The poinsetta decoration was cut from a piece of Christmas ribbon and fixed onto some strong card. I then mounted it onto some glitter card and embellished the edge in gold. I used gold and pearl seed beads to highlight the centre. The back is identical to the front.

The other is an attempt to use some of the christmas craft stuff housed in a red box! I found the domed snowman skulking away at the bottom of the box and the foam words and snowflaes were in yet another box inside the big red one!

I really am going to have to be more strict with myself... I still have so much to do...my backgrounds for my jigsaw jams to finish, some more cards for my crafting friends, (daren't send THEM shop bought ones!), blinds etc to buy for the new work room, the whole house needs cleaning as we have also had some work done inside whilst the builders were here and of course I have to sort the crafting stuff out as mentioned earlier! That LITTLE job alone will probably take me to Christmas!

But I have just had a quick look through the challenge sites.....and there ae sooooo many interesting challenge themes this week..................................

Sunday, 16 November 2008

Double dose today! Don't post for a week then put two on together..(not really together as it's now quite late and the other post today was this afternoon!)

Anyway, this is the final altered jigsaw for the Christmas swap. Margaret had set the theme as 'Wings' and had indicated she wanted to use the piece as a hanging decoation and not mount on the usual piece of canvas with the other pieces. Her colours were white, gold and red.

I used this parchment pattern for some Christmas cards last year and thought the huge oversized wings would suit Margaret's theme.

I triple embossed the jiggy background before assembling the angel. The body and the wings are done separately, and the wings are in 3 separate pieces. The angel is then assembled using silicone glue to give a 3d effect.

I have also decorated the back of the piece in a simple manner just by using a white embossed background as a base and stamping some script over and finally adding a small paper dove in an attempt to complement the 'Wings' theme.

The parchment angel is very delicate and I don't suppose it'll stand up to a lot of bashing about - so it'll be lashings of bubble wrap tomorrow before I post it., then I shall just keep everything crossed and hope that it arrives at Margaret's undamaged.

Now this is done, I can look forward to the postman bringing my completed pieces from the others in the jamand get on with ding my own pieces and my canvas background

June is offering blog candy for the best altered jigsaw piece and has invited me to enter. As I don't know which one to link, I have just linked them all!

This week has passed me by completely. I've been watching the builders get on with the garage conversion (the new workroom/office looks great and I can't wait to get in there), visiting the physio, attended a family funeral, went to a craft fair in Birmingham (spent lots!) and finally today sat down and did some crafting!

This is another jigsaw piece for the Christmas Jam. This is for Carol who had set the theme of 'Vintage' and the colours red and gold. I painted the piece with acrylic paint and blasted with the heat gun, adding some embossing powder in red, gold and my favourite 'enchanted gold' (which I confess to being completely addicted to because I love the 'fairy stardust' effect it gives) I used gold embossing powder on the chipboard embellishments and the vintage image inside the 'jolly holiday' frame is one of my favourites.

I secured the frame and the dangling star with gold star brads and added fabric stars, some sequins and beads on gold thread and threaded gold ribbon through the 'Christmas' chipboard to finish.

Over at Objet D'art this week the challenge is to make something altered and include a frame in your piece. Jennie (who has created some fab things) suggested I enter this for this week's challenge.....duly done Jennie!

I really enjoyed doing this piece. Have one more to do then I intend to sort out all the stash from Friday and sit down and play with it!

June is offering blog candy for the best altered jigsaw piece and has invited me to enter... problem is I don't know which one to put in.....so have just linked them all!

Sunday, 9 November 2008

I'm taking part in a Christmas Jigsaw Jam swap and another jigsaw jam on any theme. When each person receives all their swaps back the finished pieces are mounted on canvas to make a complete art piece. As our garage conversion is now under way I am hoping that my two jiggy jam canvases will be the first to be displayed in the new work room/office.

The jigsaw piece on the left is for Wendy's 'Oriental' theme made by using mulberry paper and stamping with gold embossing powder, adding some threaded beads and chinese lucky coin and the one on the right is for her Christmas theme of 'Angels'. This was done by stamping the Angel image, then inking over in varying shades, sprinkling some gold dust embossing powder over to give the sparkly effect, then I added the stars and chipboard words.

These two are for Sherry. Sherry asked for a 'Folk Art' Christmas piece and a red and gold piece which had to include a musical reference. These two pieces are both mixed media collages. I used some 'Shaker' embellishments for 'Happy Holidays' and as I didn't have a gold angel charm I improvised by using gold leaf over a silver one for the 'Angel of Joy'.

This piece is for Cindy. Cindy's theme was 'Things with Wings'. I had been sent this image by Anne and thought it was spot on for Cindy's challenge!

The background paper is from the 'Once Upon A Time' stack and I embossed the edges of the piece with gold embossing powder, after putting a tiny piece of torn vellum in the top left corner.

The words came with the image and I added a gem dragonfly and a gem 'buckle' to the dress!

Finally some gold and green fibres were fixed to the bottom for a 'dangly bit'!!

June is offering blog candy for the best altered jigsaw piece and has invited me to enter. Can't choose which one I like best so am just going to link them all!

Card making has taken a bit of a back seat lately, mainly because I made a mountain this year for my breast cancer fund raising but also partly becasue I wanted to be doing other challenges!

Christmas card making is seriously bad this year, will probably end up having to buy some! With a distinct lack of enthusiasm, I've probably made about 30 to date with half of these done with basic stamping. Here are a few I did using just a couple of different stamps. The Santa stamp is one of those that you can use plain and colour in, or if you're in a hurry just stamp with embossing powder (which is what I did!) as is the group of trees. The Holly card was embossed onto vellum and red acrylic paint used for the berries and the door was a stamp with UTEE over to give a glossy finish.

All need greetings to be added apart from the holly one and as usual I shall be doing that just before I put them in the envelopes!

Thursday, 6 November 2008

Maggie set her weekly challenge as Remembrance with Armistice Day fast approaching.I thought a lot about this theme. A week or so ago we had done a Vintage challenge and I'd make a tag with an image of a WW1 soldier and the words from the poem Flanders Fields so I wanted to do something different for this week's.I remembered seeing this photo of the soldier overcome by his grief crouching down in front of the line of boots and rifles which depicted all his fallen comrades and thought this was a fitting image to use.The 'Soldiers Poem' is a a favourite and I think it reminds us all that our freedoms were obtained at great cost.I printed the poem over a Union Jack on acetate and placed it over white card. The blue cross is in remembrance of all those who paid the ultimate price and the cream ribbons and dove the symbol of hope and peace.

Sunday, 2 November 2008

I have waited a while to use this photo plate and the theme on Gothic Archesthis week was 'Vintage Children' so I finally got an opportunity.

I opted to use Ranger Distress Ink in Frayed Burlap colour on the plate rather than an ordinary ink stamp. The backing paper is one of my favourites (this was the last sheet too!)and I just used Versacolour around the edges of the arch. A chipboard jigsaw piece and numbers tag fixed through a piece of brown ribbon by a brad and some lace finished the project.

As this is an original photo plate I wonder who these young ladies are? They've got to be sisters and this family photo probably took pride of place in some drawing room a long time ago!

(To have a good look at the photo plate just click on the picture - it will then zoom in so you can see the plate properly).

Proud to be -

Muse

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About Me

I love being in my crafty space! It's a place where I can make cards, paint, alter stuff and lose myself!!
If I manage to sell anything I've made the proceeds go to Breast Cancer Campaign.
I am a football fanatic and am a mad Liverpool FC supporter.
I've been tracing my family tree for the last 7 years (with one ancestry line traced back to 1605!) and this is another addiction.
I divide my time up doing all the things I like to do - crafting, genealogy, and playing bowls! I am lucky enough to have formed several friendships through my crafting and love being in blogland!

Former Design Team Member

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Former Vintage Stamping DT Member

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FOUR TIMES A GINGER GEM!

Honoured to be selected for this award- great talented artists here and to be picked amongst them once was amazing - four times is awesome!!!

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But I don't do blog awards - thank you for thinking of me. x

THE CRAFTERS COMMANDMENTS

1. I will not stuff craft supplies in every corner of my house. 2. I will not keep 9 projects going at one time 3. I will not pick more buttons, lace or fabric when I have a ton at home 4. I will not let my crafting area look like a condemmed area 5. I will not attend craft shows just to get more ideas 6. I will not relegate the kitchen table to crafts7. I will not stock up on more craft supplies just because they are on sale.8. I will not go off on a tangent when anyone mentions import9. I will not let my crafting distract me from fixing dinner.10. I will not stay up all night crafting.11. I will not save dryer lint, empty cereal boxes detergent scoops etc.12. I will not buy every craft magazine I see.13. I will not make promises I cannot keep ........ See you at a craft show.

COPYRIGHT

All artwork, photos and text on this blog are copyright Viv Tomlinson. I hope I can inspire people the way others have inspired me but please do not attempt to copy or reproduce my work.I consent for my work for any challenges/swaps etc I enter to be copied and posted on the relevant site, but please do not put any of my images elsewhere.